Looked what my wife found!!! Lion kill?

Founder

Founder

Founder Since 1999
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I have yet to see a buck I’d want to hunt this year. In fact, I haven’t even seen much that’s worth even getting photos of.

But on the pack in the other night at about midnight, my wife called out “there’s a buck”. I was expecting eyeballs, but nope, if was this awesome massive buck.

We believe it’s a lion kill. Such a shame to see a buck like this go down like that. The cat (whatever predator) only ate some gut and a little hindquarter, maggots will eat the rest I guess. Shame!

But checkout the bases!! I would’ve been so excited to have found him alive to hunt.

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kickerbuck said:
Did anyone say a hunter or human deserved to kill him? I didn't think so just that it's a loss that he's not alive and in the woods!!!
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Nobody's getting off this place alive.

I'm happy that buck didn't get shot by a hunter.

That deer was also not wasted. Lions don't eat grass.
 
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Mtn. Lions like to go for the neck area when they kill something. Should have been a couple of holes in the neck area around the spine about 2-2.5" apart.
The gut eating to me would point to coyotes or maybe wolves? Coyotes like to eat the guts.
Maybe he was just walking along and had a heart attack too.
Or, some poacher shot him and he walked off and died there. Been known to happen.......too often.

Too bad he did not make it another few years running around spreading those genes though.
 
woodturner said:
Mtn. Lions like to go for the neck area when they kill something. Should have been a couple of holes in the neck area around the spine about 2-2.5" apart.
The gut eating to me would point to coyotes or maybe wolves? Coyotes like to eat the guts.
Maybe he was just walking along and had a heart attack too.
Or, some poacher shot him and he walked off and died there. Been known to happen.......too often.

Too bad he did not make it another few years running around spreading those genes though.
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Most of the time on a lion kill the nasal cavity will be broke because they suffocate their prey by putting their mouth over there's also neck bites are common too and allot of claw marks around the body from wrestling around and most of the time they will try to bury their prey as well
 
HikeHunt61 said:
Ya, I'm cool with nature doing its thing too. I was just taken aback by the happy part- like maybe you don't want hunters to get nice bucks or something. You say for starters- is there a finisher?
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And lots in between. That deer survived to what appears to be older age, he dodged predators, outfitters, vehicles, fences, poachers, a severe winter, etc.

I would argue that there still is enough available and secure habitat, migration corridors, etc. left to give that deer all it needed for a normal life expectancy without being shot by a human.

It certainly lived long enough to pass his genes along. Likely had some other younger bucks around it during migration and during the summers, they learn from each other.

There was obviously other wildlife that utilized some of it, more will likely utilize it as well.

Finally, if founder would have posted a photo of a dead mature doe, not one person would have responded with anything other than, "oh well, it's just a doe".

Funny how a set of antlers makes it "what a waste".

I don't see it that way, at all.
 
Bookhead said:
Most of the time on a lion kill the nasal cavity will be broke because they suffocate their prey by putting their mouth over there's also neck bites are common too and allot of claw marks around the body from wrestling around and most of the time they will try to bury their prey as well
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I looked it over pretty good on Friday night and just couldn’t see any face wounds or anything on the neck.

Couldn’t find any crap around there and it didn’t look like a huge struggle happened.

The vegetation above his final resting spot was down for about 20’ up the hill.

Unlike buzz, I think it’s a real shame. Whatever killed it only ate a small portion, had I killed it I’d have eaten much more. And it would’ve brought me much more joy than it did whatever killed it. :LOL: But if someone loves maggots, well, they’re feasting well!!

Just finished skinning the head, and it was nasty! The wife offered, but I knew she was way grossed out by all those little guys.

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I have to say though, it sure brought my wife a lot of joy. She’s never shot a deer before, only found sheds and small deadheads, so she probably views the finding of it much different than I.

I think, “what a shame that deer died by cat and not me shooting him”, but I think she probably views it as, “wow, what a super find and my husband walked right passed it and I found it”.
 
Founder said:
I looked it over pretty good on Friday night and just couldn’t see any face wounds or anything on the neck.

Couldn’t find any crap around there and it didn’t look like a huge struggle happened.

The vegetation above his final resting spot was down for about 20’ up the hill.

Unlike buzz, I think it’s a real shame. Whatever killed it only ate a small portion, had I killed it I’d have eaten much more. And it would’ve brought me much more joy than it did whatever killed it. :LOL: But if someone loves maggots, well, they’re feasting well!!

Just finished skinning the head, and it was nasty! The wife offered, but I knew she was way grossed out by all those little guys.

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You're from Utah, I would be surprised if you didn't think a deer dying from anything other than a bullet or an arrow was a waste.

I just feel differently about it.
 
BuzzH said:
Finally, if founder would have posted a photo of a dead mature doe, not one person would have responded with anything other than, "oh well, it's just a doe".

Funny how a set of antlers makes it "what a waste".
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That's a reasonable perspective- but of course, on a site dedicated to "Monster Muleys", one might expect the majority of participants to be "just a tad" disappointed.
 
I kind of jumped a mountain lion off a blacktail kill one year. It was a yearling doe, so no big deal. Anyhow, the lion had it gutted, and the liver was missing and there was a chunk of meat eaten on one ham.
 
Founder- did it have marks on its haunches?

Dad killed his biggest buck in the northern Wyo range. He noted long gouge marks on both rear hips. G&F officer said it was a miracle that deer survived the attack- once a lion get it's paws on the deer, it is almost always a done deal.
 
Founder said:
I looked it over pretty good on Friday night and just couldn’t see any face wounds or anything on the neck.

Couldn’t find any crap around there and it didn’t look like a huge struggle happened.

The vegetation above his final resting spot was down for about 20’ up the hill.

Unlike buzz, I think it’s a real shame. Whatever killed it only ate a small portion, had I killed it I’d have eaten much more. And it would’ve brought me much more joy than it did whatever killed it. :LOL: But if someone loves maggots, well, they’re feasting well!!

Just finished skinning the head, and it was nasty! The wife offered, but I knew she was way grossed out by all those little guys.

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Exactly.

Predators, be they cougars or maggots, and everything in between, are down the pyramid for me. When it comes to concern for wildlife, I look at it this way…… if the we are making sure the system, both natural and man made, are keeping the wild undulates prospering, there will always be plenty of groceries for the rest of the animal kingdom.

I shared this personal opinion with a past Director of Utah’s Department of Wildlife Resources and it pissed him off royally (no offense directed at BuzzH, just sharing a reaction) .

Of course cougars and maggots are important to the system, but neither a maggot nor a cougar care how a mule deer looks, to them it is purely food. I do care. I love seeing natures mature animals. The ones that survived the odds of disease, starvation, and predation. I’d much rather Founder’s wife had the thrill and the admiration of seeing taking that buck on a deer hunt than the way it played out.
 
HikeHunt61 said:
Founder- did it have marks on its haunches?

Dad killed his biggest buck in the northern Wyo range. He noted long gouge marks on both rear hips. G&F officer said it was a miracle that deer survived the attack- once a lion get it's paws on the deer, it is almost always a done deal.
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I didn’t see anything, but we were trying to look it over in the dark. I didn’t want to move it too much because I wanted to get more pictures today when we hiked out. But today the maggots had eaten so much more of it. They’d eaten so much from inside out I couldn’t tell what may have been and external injury versus just maggots eating their way out.
 
Hope you skipped a meal before cutting the head off and skinning the head out. Smell must of been BAD!!! Amazing what we will tolerate for a nice rack. Nice find, is that tag from game and fish? It will make a nice euro if you can keep the velvet intact and treated.
 
2lumpy said:
Exactly.

Predators, be they cougars or maggots, and everything in between, are down the pyramid for me. When it comes to concern for wildlife, I look at it this way…… if the we are making sure the system, both natural and man made, are keeping the wild undulates prospering, there will always be plenty of groceries for the rest of the animal kingdom.

I shared this personal opinion with a past Director of Utah’s Department of Wildlife Resources and it pissed him off royally (no offense directed at BuzzH, just sharing a reaction)
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You Pissed Somebody Off Within The Department of Wildlife Resources?:D

Na,Not You!:D

I Thought I Was The only One!



2lumpy said:
.

Of course cougars and maggots are important to the system, but neither a maggot nor a cougar care how a mule deer looks, to them it is purely food. I do care. I love seeing natures mature animals. The ones that survived the odds of disease, starvation, and predation. I’d much rather Founder’s wife had the thrill and the admiration of seeing taking that buck on a deer hunt than the way it played out.
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LIK2HNT said:
Hope you skipped a meal before cutting the head off and skinning the head out. Smell must of been BAD!!! Amazing what we will tolerate for a nice rack. Nice find, is that tag from game and fish? It will make a nice euro if you can keep the velvet intact and treated.
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That’s what Vicks is for LIK2.
 
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elkassassin said:
You Pissed Somebody Off Within The Department of Wildlife Resources?:D

Na,Not You!:D

I Thought I Was The only One!
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Ha……. never intentionally BC, they just didn’t like my view of the system nor how I made my voice heard.

In this case, the Gentleman asked me, “so….. are you’re telling me, a brook trout or an elk is more important in the ecosystem than a snail or a chip munk.”

My answer was, “I sure as hell do and with your job, so should you.”

There in lays much of our problem, that’s how the bureaucrats are wired. They were 35 years ago and they still are today.
 
Great find!!
Would have been interesting to see if he would have grown much more up top.
Will you be able to salvage the velvet?

I'm guessing it died of natural causes and something came along and had a free meal. I would expect more damage to the velvet and other scratches/bites if it had been struggling for its life in a desperate fight.

"Whatever" killed it certainly wasted a lot of meat. Usually predators will return and eat a lot more of it (in my personal experience/observations anyway). Apparently there are plenty of groceries around and they were able to easily find other fresh meat to eat.

Share pics when you get done (assume you are doing a euro with him?)
 
woodturner said:
Mtn. Lions like to go for the neck area when they kill something. Should have been a couple of holes in the neck area around the spine about 2-2.5" apart.
The gut eating to me would point to coyotes or maybe wolves? Coyotes like to eat the guts.
Maybe he was just walking along and had a heart attack too.
Or, some poacher shot him and he walked off and died there. Been known to happen.......too often.

Too bad he did not make it another few years running around spreading those genes though.
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I'm thinking coyotes or wolves looks like the front half has not been touched that much
 
SDBugler said:
Great find!!
Would have been interesting to see if he would have grown much more up top.
Will you be able to salvage the velvet?

I'm guessing it died of natural causes and something came along and had a free meal. I would expect more damage to the velvet and other scratches/bites if it had been struggling for its life in a desperate fight.

"Whatever" killed it certainly wasted a lot of meat. Usually predators will return and eat a lot more of it (in my personal experience/observations anyway). Apparently there are plenty of groceries around and they were able to easily find other fresh meat to eat.

Share pics when you get done (assume you are doing a euro with him?)
Click to expand...
I don’t think we’ll be able to salvage the velvet. The wife talked with a taxidermist who said that if it’s already rotten, it’s gone. :(

I suppose it’s possible he died of natural causes, it just seems unlikely based on time of year and the huge antlers he was actively growing. But I have no idea.

I’ll tell you though, while we were looking at it in the dark, the thought of a big grizzly being close shot to my head and I got a little nervous. Didn’t want to be hanging around too long!!!
 
Founder said:
I don’t think we’ll be able to salvage the velvet. The wife talked with a taxidermist who said that if it’s already rotten, it’s gone. :(

I suppose it’s possible he died of natural causes, it just seems unlikely based on time of year and the huge antlers he was actively growing. But I have no idea.

I’ll tell you though, while we were looking at it in the dark, the thought of a big grizzly being close shot to my head and I got a little nervous. Didn’t want to be hanging around too long!!!
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Don't blame you don't want to be another statistic
 
Super cool find! Would have loved to see him finished out and hard horned, will make a cool euro mount!
 
Bookhead said:
Most of the time on a lion kill the nasal cavity will be broke because they suffocate their prey by putting their mouth over there's also neck bites are common too and allot of claw marks around the body from wrestling around and most of the time they will try to bury their prey as well
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Good info. I found a nice deadhead 30" with nasal area all black and blue and falling apart after boiling skull. I assumed it was hit by a car and bruised nose was from smashing onto the car... I will post a pic later.

Big buck. Cool find Mrs Founder!
 
Founder said:
I don’t think we’ll be able to salvage the velvet. The wife talked with a taxidermist who said that if it’s already rotten, it’s gone. :(

I suppose it’s possible he died of natural causes, it just seems unlikely based on time of year and the huge antlers he was actively growing. But I have no idea.

I’ll tell you though, while we were looking at it in the dark, the thought of a big grizzly being close shot to my head and I got a little nervous. Didn’t want to be hanging around too long!!!
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Probably wouldn't hurt anything to try by soaking some rags in denatured alcohol, wrap around the antlers and bag it up (or submerge it entirely in denatured alcohol, but that's a lot of volume to fill).
 
Bookhead said:
No a game a tag is a metal lock on tag that's the white thing on it in the second set of pictures. You have to call the game warden and get one from them
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Yep it's called an interstate game tag and you call the GW and report the find and they will sell you the metal tag to put on it. They may want to investigate if the kill looks suspicious.
 
I shot a deer years ago that had scars across his face that mirrored what looked like a lion attack. I still have the mount and you can still see the scars. amazing he survived the attack.
 
Great find. Big congrats to Mrs. Founder. If you were in eastern Wyoming, the G&F would count that as a CWD death.

And yes, you should seriously get his teeth aged. Great mass and I'd be curious as to how many winters he has survived.

The habitat sure looks good, too. God's country!
 
Cool find by the Mrs. Its amazing how fast the maggots can mow through and animal.

Good of the resident expert to chime in with his opinion, otherwise this thread might have just been about a cool find of an old buck
 
A number of years ago I saw a truck nail a big buck. I flipped around and took the head as well as a bunch of pic's. Took it to the warden and he refused to sell a tag. He said he was going to destroy it. Asked him if he could hold off. Spoke to a warden friend in a different district. He said it's the warden's call. I ended up pleading my case to several layers of management and they finally agreed to letting me keep it.
 
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Problem Is,You Move It/Take It Before You Get It Called/Turned In You Could Be In Trouble!

And Yes,I Know,You Try & Do It Legal The Next DRAT By Will Take It Home!

Triple_BB said:
A number of years ago I saw a truck nail a big buck. I flipped around and took the head as well as a bunch of pic's. Took it to the warden and he refused to sell a tag. He said he was going to destroy it. Asked him if he could hold off. Spoke to a warden friend in a different district. He said it's the warden's call. I ended up pleading my case to several layers of management and they finally agreed to letting me keep it.
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Stay on good terns with your GW and you tend to get a little leeway with those deadhead finds.
We always just throw some brush over it and call the GW.
Almost always they say bring it out but get coordinates for the kill site for them.
Road kills were trickier , with the new law I bet not so much as long as you take the whole deer.
 

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